Cephalopods

The octopus, the squid, the nautilus and the cuttlefish are some of the most extraordinary creatures on this planet, intelligent and yet apparently unlike other life forms. They are cephalopods and are part of the mollusc family like snails and clams, and they have some characteristics in common with those. What sets them apart is the way members of their group can change colour, camouflage themselves, recognise people, solve problems, squirt ink, power themselves with jet propulsion and survive both on land, briefly, and in the deepest, coldest oceans. And, without bones or shells, they grow so rapidly they can outstrip their rivals when habitats change, making them the great survivors and adaptors of the animal world.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Louise Allcock No other episodes
  Lecturer in Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway
• Paul Rodhouse No other episodes
  Emeritus Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey
• Jonathan Ablett No other episodes
  Senior Curator of Molluscs at the Natural History Museum

Reading list

• Cephalopods: Ecology and Fisheries
  Peter Boyle and Paul Rodhouse (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005) Google Books →
• Cephalopod Life Cycles: Volume 1: Species Accounts
  Peter Boyle (ed.) (Academic Press, 1984) Google Books →
• Cephalopod Life Cycles: Volume 2: Comparative Reviews
  Peter Boyle (ed.) (Academic Press, 1987) Google Books →
• The Search for the Giant Squid
  Richard Ellis (Penguin, 1999) Google Books →
• Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
  Peter Godfrey-Smith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017) Google Books →
• Cephalopod Behaviour
  Roger T. Hanlon and John B. Messenger (Cambridge University Press, 1998) Google Books →
• Kingdom of the Octopus: The Life History of the Cephalopoda
  Frank W. Lane (Pyramid Publications, 1962) Google Books →
• Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate
  Jennifer Mather, Roland C. Anderson and James B. Wood (Timber Press, 2010) Google Books →
• Kraken
  China Mieville (Pan, 2011)
• The Brain and Lives of Cephalopods
  Marion Nixon and John Z. Young (Oxford University Press, 2002) Google Books →
• Cephalopods: A World Guide: Octopuses, Argonauts, Cuttlefish, Squid, Nautilus
  Mark Norman (ConchBooks, 2000) Google Books →
• Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods
  Danna Staaf (ForeEdge, 2017) Google Books →
• Natural History of Nautilus
  Peter Douglas Ward (HarperCollins, London, 1987) Google Books →
• Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
  Wendy Williams (Abrams, 2011) Google Books →

Related episodes

• The Fish-Tetrapod Transition
  
  20 Oct, 2022 570 Biology
• Plankton
  
  5 Oct, 2023 570 Biology
• The Whale - A History
  
  21 May, 2009 570 Biology
• Oceanography
  
  22 Nov, 2001 550 Earth sciences and geology
• Extra Terrestrials
  
  4 Apr, 2002 520 Astronomy
• Extremophiles
  
  25 Jun, 2015 570 Biology
• The Evolution of Crocodiles
  
  16 Sep, 2021 590 Animals (Zoology)
• The Cambrian Period
  
  17 Feb, 2005 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• The Origins of Life
  
  23 Sep, 2004 570 Biology
• The Natural Order
  
  6 Apr, 2000 570 Biology

---

Programme ID: b09pjgrn

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09pjgrn

Auto-category: 594 (Mollusca)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, the octopus, the squid, the nautilus and the cuttlefish are some of the most extraordinary creatures on this planet, intelligent and yet so unlike other life forms.